When we first bought our house a little over two years ago, our landscaping was completely overgrown and pretty much the grossest thing we had ever seen.  Have yourself a little look...

And that picture is after we got new windows, a new front door, and a new roof...just imagine the horror before!  So then...over the next couple years we tore all the bushes and junk out...so for a long time it looked like this...

Brady and I were planning on doing the landscaping ourselves.  We researched the internet, creeped all over town on peoples yards, and checked out books from the library.  But we had no idea what to do when it came to our house!  It was so frustrating...until...I found out that one of my new crop insurance customers also does landscaping on the side.  When someone is a customer or mine, I am more than happy to do business with them.  So he came out and measured everything and asked all sorts of questions.  In a couple days we had a plan drawn out, and a few weeks after that there was a crew of 3 guys at our house getting work done! 

Of course having someone else do it was more expensive than if we would have done it ourselves, but we are so happy we did it and are so pleased with the final product.  Our house just looks happier now and has so much more curb appeal!

I think you should really see some before and afters...the before pictures were taken Monday morning, and the after pictures were taken Monday evening! 

I can't wait until everything blooms and starts to fill in.  Don Anderson and Garden Gate Landscapes did an awesome job and if anyone is wanting their services then you should call Don at (765) 325-2681.

The pictures hardly do it justice, everyone will just have to come over to see it in real life so you can really appreciate all the new outside wonderfulness!

I hope you like is as  much as we do (I am sure you don't, but that's okay...we better like it the most since we paid for it!)

Thanks for reading!

My wonderful Granny has a condo in sunny Florida.  She bought this condo completely furnished and hasn't changed a thing in the last 20 years.  Okay, maybe a couple things are different, but the condo pretty much oozes with tropical 70's glory, right down to the olive green sinks, the plastic couch, and the hideous window treatments.  Despite all that, there was always one thing at that condo that I loved (besides my Granny of course).  It was a custom print hanging in the kitchen that was titled "How to Cook a Husband".  Last year when Brady, Mom and I were visiting Granny she must have felt sick because she gave the picture to me...and she never gets rid of anything!  I carefully packed the print for the flight home and prayed the glass didn't get cracked en route.  So I have had it at home for almost a year now and I still haven't hung it on the wall.  Want to see why...

Because it is hideous!  Sorry Grandma.  I always loved what it said though.  I just don't understand what a lady holding an umbrella wearing a body suit made of Vera Bradley look alike fabric had to do with cooking?  Also what is with the guys candy striper costume?  Freaky, freaky, freaky.  This Pati lady who made the print in 1967 must have been high or something?

But guess what?  Never fear Etsy is here!  I sent an email to my favorite Etsy graphic designer, explained the situation, and she totally came through for me.  I told her that we have a country kitchen, yellow is the prominent color and there is a mild sunflower theme.  A couple days and $15 later I had this gorgeous file in my email.

Sorry I had to post it as a screen shot from my iPhone...the actualy file is way top big to upload to my Weebly.  Maybe if I ever get serious about this blogging thing then I will purchase the professional version of Weebly?  Anyways, just imagine a more crisp photo without the iPhone border...isn't it gorgeous?!

I just sent the file to Mpix to get it printed as a 16 by 20.  I paid $`15 for the custom artwork, $20 for a frame, and $23 for the printing.  Less than $60 for a piece of custom artwork for our kitchen that no one else will ever have...AWESOME!

On Wednesday I had the pleasure of caddying in the pro-am at the BMW championship.  This is the day before the real tournament happens Thursday - Sunday.  It is a practice round where amateur golfers pay big bucks to swing their sticks with the big boys.  This one
round of golf costs each armature $8,500.  Yes that's right...$8,500 for one round of golf…AHH! Every foursome had three amatuers and one pro. 

The pro in our group was 30 year old Bill Haas.  You old folks who read my blog might remember his dad, also a pro golfer, Jay Haas.  In 2011 Bill won 11.4 million dollars in just one day playing golf, by winning the FedEx Cup with an exciting up and down from the water.  He was a super nice guy.  Like me, he also got married about a year ago and him and his wife don’t have any kids…he talked to me a ton, asking me if I was a golfer, what my husband did for a living, where I went to college, what did I study, etc.  It was so neat because he was such a “normal” guy.  He just has every other guys dream job...playing golf for a living.  Oh, and best part…he is a Christian…graduated from Wake Forest with his degree in Religious Studies.  

On and around the golf course on Wednesday I got to see Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson, D. A. Points, Rory McIlroy, Steve Stricker, and others.  

Oh ya…the reason I got to do all this.  I graduated from U of I two years ago with no college debt whatsoever all because of being a caddy and receiving the Chick Evans Scholarship.  The Evans Scholarship is the largest privately funded scholarship in the country, sending over 800 caddies to college every year, paying for every dime of tution and housing.  Not a bad gig right?

My family and I were so blessed when I received the Evans Scholarship and the blessings continue to flow today.  I mean, what an awesome opportunity to caddy at a major PGA event like the BMW championship?!

After 2 days my new buddy is 9 under, tied for 9th place.
GO BILL!

Brady and I have a couple of neighbor kids who we lovingly refer to as "the boys".  We met the boys shortly after buying our house a little over a year ago.  If we were working outside in our yard they would just stop by to say hello, often times standing around awkwardly and talking way longer than we had time for.  During these conversations we quickly learned a lot about the boys and their lives.  They are twins, even though one looks older than the other.  Their names are Dustin and JR and they were 17 years old...now 18.  Their mom didn't work and they were going through some rough financial times but she was looking for a job.

When we learned that the boys and their mom were having some financial issues it didn't come as a huge shock to us.  We hadn't ever been inside their home, but from the outside you could tell that it wasn't taken care of very well.  The grass was two feet long, there was a fallen down tree just lying in the front yard, and the house emitted a very disgusting dirty smell.  All these things of course were the effect of not only poverty, but also laziness...which often go hand in hand.

Over the winter is when we found out things were really bad.  We would drive past the house at 6:00 pm and it would be pitch black...their financial status had fallen so low that they could no longer afford to pay the electric bill.  They had two horses in the pasture by their house that were both wasting away from starvation.  Those ended up getting taken away by the county, thank God.  One of them survived but one was too weak to even stand up to get onto the trailer to be taken to its safe haven and he died.  Yes it was very sad seeing those horses shrink to skin and bones in the freezing temperatures.  But what was even more sad was the two boys who were living inside that home, also freezing, dirty, and hungry. 

Brady and I started employing the boys around the house and the farm...just doing odd jobs for us here and there.  We would pay them $20 and they would go home like they just won the lottery.  It broke our hearts when we learned that whenever we gave them money...money that they had worked hard for and earned...the first thing that they had to do with it was ride their bikes into town and buy their mom cigarettes.

The more we hung out with the boys the more our hearts grew for those goofy kids.  Sure a lot of times they would annoy me...they still do, but what teenage boy isn't annoying?  Our relationship with Dustin and JR grew and Brady told me one night that God had layed on his heart that we were going to play a big role in our lives and God placed us as their neighbors for a reason.  I laughed, shrugged it off, and secretly prayed to God that Brady's premonition wasn't true.  We were 24 year old newlyweds; the last thing I wanted was to be responsible for kids, especially 18 year old twin boys! 

We started taking the boys with us to church and shortly afterward they both got saved!  Every Sunday we tell them to come to our house at 8:15 for church, they usually arrive at 8:00, Bibles in hand, huge smiles on their faces just so excited to praise the Lord and hear the Word of God preached to them.  This just blew my mind because in my shallow worldly mind, they didn't have much to be thankful for, and when I was 18 I was never excited about going to church...I was usually trying to find excuses to get out of going!

Dustin and JR also got plugged into an awesome youth ministry in Sharpsville called Teen Blast.  A very Godly couple lead that ministry and they have helped the boys more than we could ever wish to.  One day the boys were helping out at a Teen Blast car wash and when they returned home their mom was gone.  There was a note on the counter telling the boys that she had left them and since they were 18 they were on their own.  She left her children to move to the UK to be with a man who she met while playing games on Facebook using the computers at the library...this is all true...I can't even make this stuff up.  She had kindly left the boys $100 so they could get the electric turned back on, what a great mom...insert sarcasm here.  Now even though the boys are 18, they are mentally about 15, they both need a little extra help in the classroom and they have very poor social skills as they weren't taught anything by their mom.  And as you might have guessed, they have a dead beat dad who left the boys at a very young age and they haven't heard from him or seen him since.  Their dad has also done some horrible and unthinkable things to the boys, but out of respect for them and their privacy I won't share these on a public blog. 

The date their mom left was May 19, this is a day I am sure the boys will remember forever because this was the day that their mom abandoned them.  She was the person on this earth who was supposed to care for them, help them with homework, kiss them, love them, and always be there for them.  But instead she just left them with a note and a hundred dollars so she could run away from all her problems and be with her Facebook boyfriend in another country. 

As you may know, in a small town word travels FAST!  While many people complain about this and it isn't always the best thing...in this situation it was.  Within two weeks of the boys mom leaving them the community has poured so much love on Dustin and JR it's amazing.  People have brought them food, they are getting lined up with a male mentor at our church who will act like a father figure for the boys, they are going to the dentist and doctor to get checked out, their electricity is back on, and from the exposure to more people the boys aren't nearly as awkward as they used to be.  Many people in town have also employed the boys to do odd jobs for them and the boys have raised enough money to get their electricity turned back on all by themselves!  They are also cleaning their house from top to bottom...Brady and I gave them some bleach and some rat poison and told them to get to work.  They have been working so hard on their house that when Brady saw the inside for the first time post cleaning, he was FLOORED.  They still have a long way to go on the house, but Brady and I told them that if they keep making good progress this whole week than we will celebrate this Friday with a fun night where we will go out to eat and go to the batting cages and do whatever else 18 year old boys like to do.

The generosity and love of everyone towards these boys has absolutely stunned me.  We haven't even asked anyone for anything and people are just stepping up out of the kindness of their hearts.  We have a fund (an envelope, haha) for the boys with over $1300 in it...all from people just handing us money saying they want to help "the boys"!!!!  We are taking the boys to the bank this week and we are going to open checking accounts for both of them.  We will supervise these accounts for the boys and teach them proper money management.  Dustin and JR also have both applied for multiple jobs this summer and hopefully they will be working sooner than later! 

We are planning a major spring cleaning of the boys' house to be done in the next couple of weeks.  While the house is ten times better than it used to be, it is still nowhere near sanitary.  Tom List has volunteered his dump truck and we are looking for a crew of people to come out and clean until you can't clean anymore.  We will give everyone rubber gloves and masks.  I will write again as soon as I know exactly what day we are doing this, but the more people who can help the better!  Also if anyone has any handyman experience then that would be a huge asset to this project as I know of a few things around the house that need repaired, and I am sure there are a lot more that I don't know about.  Also if anyone has any old furniture or boys clothes that are collecting dust at their house, then please send them our way!  The boys have very little so any way that anyone can think of helping them will mean a ton! 

These are great kids and just because their parents didn't do their jobs doesn't mean we can't do ours.  As Christians God calls us to help those in need, especially the fatherless and poor.  1 Samuel 2:8 says "He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he eats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor."  My interpretation of this, is that in heaven I will be mowing the boys' yard and cleaning their floors on my hands and knees.  But until then it is still our duty to help these boys...it is my prayer for them that a year from now Dustin will be graduated from high school and he will be on his way to college in the fall.  JR has dreams of getting his GED and enlisting in the military, and I also hope that this becomes his reality in a year or less!  Please contact Brady or I if you want to help in any way and I will keep the blog updated as things progress.  "He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God." Proverbs 14:31